Search

Help

You are here

Search results

#Incarcerated Lives Matter By: Lacino Hamilton Just a few years ago, the crises of mass incarceration was largely thought of as an invisible issue. Talked about almost exclusively in abolitionist circles and on prison yards. It is now part of the mainstream discourse. Publications and groups spanning the political spectrum, even presidential hopefuls in both parties, claim support for reducing the incarceration rate. Still, we must not be naive. Elite-level alliances, the dominant voice, tape...

A More Complicated Framework May Yield More Decarceration Options By: Lacino Hamilton Many incarcerated people find the sudden message of mass incarceration being a really bad idea, the right message, but the dominate narrative superficial. And therefore distracts from the most immediate challenges of not only decarceration, but ultimately the abolition of prisons. Let's be clear, for the most part, the current national conversation surrounding how to reform mass incarceration policies i...

An Open Letter To Prisoner Advocacy Groups,And People That Claim To ﬁtand In solidarity with Prisoners By: Lacino Hamilton Incarcerated people are aware that prisoner advocacy groups and people that claim to stand in solidarity with prisoners, are not magicians. Incarcerated people are aware that these groups and individuals do not possess supernatural powers. The same way that incarcerated people are aware that the practice of wizardry did not create the many contradictions that pervade U.S....

At What Point Do We Act Out Our Ideas? By: Lacino Hamilton Been trying to find space to observe and reflect on the world and where I find myself in it. Trying to find a place for the careful working out of ideas. I do not want to form the habit of writing for the sake of being topical. The dialogue being developed is much to important for that. Besides, even reading and writing possess functional limits. There must be recourse to other disciplines, other means of challenging practices that do...

Befng Sans In An Insane Place By: Lac!no Hamilton icrete, the razor wire, bullet proof glass, or assassins watching from gun towers. Incarceration Is not just the Isolation, the monotony, loneliness, or the assiduous misery. Incarceration Is not just the anxiety, the Idleness, apathy, or *V. pent up frustrations characteristic of these dismal crypts. Neither* ?3 It Just having to always chase after something, having to hide something, or having to hold my ground against something, or someone....

Capitalism Creates The Need For Prison By: Lacino Hamilton For many people in the U.S., the high hopes of securing a career, or at least a full-time job that pays a living wage, a relatively stable community, or a clean environment with a quality future for their children has been wiped out. More and more people continue to be marginalized and rendered destitute by capitalism, forced by necessity to learn to live outside the formal economy. In this climate the politics of poverty, hunger, hom...

Censorship In Michigan Prisons By: Uacino Hamilton Today, another book was rejected. The fifth time in the past two mocks this has happened. All because the book wasn't soot from an "approved vondor." To the unlnformsd public such a requirement may appear on its face rsssonahls, tho Michigan department of Corrsctions should control whore information prisoners are rocsiving is coming from, and what that information is. But in practice, its a form of censorship. A policy that pro...

Let’s Bridge The Divide And Create A Transformative Cearning Experience By: lacino Hamilton Much of the criticism pushing the national conversation concerning U.5. mass incarceration appears to come from upper-middle-class politicians, scholars, and media personalities. Most of whom have little or no direct contact with prisons or prisoners. This hardly represents healthy democratic impulses. The message to the general public is that the perspectives, ideas and experiences of incarcerated peo...

February 2, 2011 Dad, No matter how many times, how many ways, I explain the past 37 years of nonfulfillment, you seem to never understand. You did not understand whan I was fifteen when I repeatedly asked for your help. Who advises their child to "hustle harder?" To "get out and get it like you live?" I listened, but you knew better than me the emotional, psychological and social reverberations. But you did not care, or had a peculiar way of showing it. It bothers me know...

The Explosive Growth of Police With a Military Orientation By: Lacino Hamilton Politicians in the U.S., as well as the mass media, have almost universally ignored the continuous expansion of the police. A significant move in a sea of policies (and absence of policies) which aided the unprecedented expansion of U.S. prisons. Rather than questioning the idea of more and more police doing things that used to be done by neighbors and community groups; rather than questioning has the U.S. reached ...

The Glow of False Anti-Racisim A person would have to be living under a rock not to have heard about Jewish-American, LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling's repugnant comments about not wanting his half Black and half Mexican extramarital love interest, some say mistress, to publicly associate with Black people; and his subsequent life-time ban from the NBA. It will probably go down as one of the biggest scandals ever in professional sports. When President Barack Obama made a cameo appeara...

Tha Real Solution To Solving "Crime" 15 Suilding Strong Bnmmunitiaa By: Laclnu Hamilton It doesn't requira much deliharatinn tn raalize that burglary, rape, murdar and other harms hava reached propurtians in snma American citiaa that make literally anyone I! patsntial victim. Take slain 22 year old "atrnit wnman Ehristina Samuel, mhu was fatally ahot an the city's east side around 11:h5 p.m. on Bhristmaa Eva 291%. She was sitting in a can with her 2!; year old friend,...

Ths School To Prison Pipeline By: Lacinq Hamilton Several years ago I hap the. distinct pleasure.. of participating in an "Are Prisons.Qbsolets" workshop at the Macomb Correctional.Pacility in New Hav Michigan. During a bathroom and refreshment break I had an insightful discussion with one of the professors that flew in from Ohio. Some of which I'd like to ,share here. The professor, a twenty year veteran of ths academy, shared with ms an essay wrote by Pedro. A. Moguera, a pro...

To Determine How People Will Behave Once They Enter Prison, It Is Of First Importance To Know Something About Administrators And Guards By: Lacino Hamilton One of the unforeseen, and certainly unintended consequences of recent discussions of mass incarceration, prison profiteering, restorative justice as an alternative to [incapacitation?] being the center piece of justice is, some critics have come to question the people who operate and staff prisons. Could they have anything to do with why ...

Too Much Recidivism, Too Little Treatment By: Lacino Hamilton There is not a single explanation for recidivism. Rather, varying circumstances and combination of factors which include socio-economic disadvantages, unhealthy life styles, zero tolerant parole guidelines, personal pathologies, residential and employment segregation, and a lack of substantial psycho-social programming before release from incarceration. Assuming the relative contribution of these factors is complicated by the fact ...

We Will Sing, March And Clap After We Defeat Police Oppression 9yi Lacino Hamilton Are American police more abusive and violent all of a sudden, or is the phenomenon of camera phones and cities wired for surveillance now capturing behavior that had been distorted as a necessary response to the poor and their allege violent gun-and-drug culture? Before you answer consider the following. The preoccupation with poor people being the reason why police are abusive, repressive, and often times murd...

What is Justice? By: Lacino Hamilton A recent rash of publicized fatal shootings of unarmed black pedestrians by law enforcement officers has drew uproarious pleas of justice for the family and friends of those who lost their lives. The family and friends of these men and women need to experience acknowledgement, voice, and participation in order to heal. Not solely in terms of forensic and adversarial legal processes, but in terms of restoration and peach. Unfortunately, there is no coherent...